After serving drinks and providing the mobile bar at many of Ibiza’s finest weddings and events over the past six years, when it was time for James Lindley and Danielle Hodgson-Lindley – founders of The Bar Ibiza – to tie the knot in 2011, we couldn’t help but wonder what it was like for them on the other side of the bar! Read the full interview below – photography by Ana Lui.

Did you take inspiration from the many Ibiza weddings you’ve catered for in the past?
The style of our wedding wasn’t like anything we’d ever done before – what we did learn from other weddings was exactly how to plan the running order and timing of certain things. We knew to take our time, not to be rushed and to keeping the pre-ceremony drinks in one area then move onto another one so our seating plans didn’t get all jumbled up…

The biggest question is… what was behind your bar?
For pre-ceremony drinks and guest arrivals we had cava sangria, raspberry bellinis, soft drinks and beers… nothing too heavy. We made sure to leave water by the guests’ chairs and then post-ceremony served a ginger and lychee iced tea. Then we had strawberry daiquiris, mojitos, raspberry mojitos plus a regular bar throughout the whole evening.

Knowing what you know about how much people consume at weddings, did you keep a bit of a lid on it to make sure your guests behaved?
We kind of did! We organised a boat party for the next day, which was leaving at 1pm, so we served drinks until 3am knowing this. We do always try and advise our clients not to serve cocktails straight away, otherwise their guests are drinking heavily for 12 hours straight. We were able to provide certain things at the right time, like bring waters around when needed and serve iced tea between the ceremony and reception.

How did it feel to be on the other side of The Bar? Were you tempted to jump in and get yourself a drink at any stage?
It was kind of weird, you find yourself watching what all the staff are doing and it was kind of hard to switch off. But in the end, to be fair, we were having such a good time and it was nice to relax and know our trusted staff were taking care of everything and we didn’t have to sort anything out ourselves.

Having worked on so many weddings, you have the insider’s scoop on the very best of everything! Who did you choose for the most important elements?
We planned the whole wedding ourselves — it took around eight months in total to organise and Kerry-Anne Winton from Ibiza Wedding helped with coordination on the day. Ana Lui was our photographer, Mark Watkins from La Grande Bouffe did the food, an amazing mini-barbeque buffet on every table and Brian BeeZwax was our DJ – he was absolutely amazing and did the boat party for us the next day too. And The Bar Ibiza did the bar, of course!

Did you learn anything from your experiences as bride and groom that you’ll take back into your work this summer?
That the small things really do matter. To really keep honing in on getting everything right, every time. There are times when people get a bit blasé about some things at weddings and may think oh no one will notice – they really do. You never take your eye off anything throughout the whole day, the whole wedding.